Despite still being on holiday break, some Republicans are not in the giving mood when it comes to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
On Thursday, Representative Andy Harris, who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus, told Fox Business that Republicans need to think about whether their current leadership “is what we need.”
“Before the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what’s the best path forward,” Harris said about Johnson. “We do need to consider whether—if we’re going to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda—whether the current leadership is what we need.”
On Friday, Representative Thomas Massie also expressed a lack of confidence in Johnson’s leadership in a post on X, saying that he “will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson.”
“I’m not persuaded by the ‘hurry up and elect him so we can certify the election on J6’ argument,” Massie’s post said, referring to the certification of the 2024 election set to take place on January 6, 2025. “A weak legislative branch, beholden to the swamp, will not be able to achieve the mandate voters gave Trump and Congress in November.”
Last week, Harris said in a statement that he was “now undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress,” possibly signaling that the Freedom Caucus may lead the charge in unseating and replacing Johnson when the new Congress is sworn in. If this is the case, then who would replace Johnson as the new speaker?
Earlier this year, Harris floated Representative Jim Jordan as a possible candidate, while outspoken Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Rand Paul have made an outlandish call for Elon Musk to take over the speakership. In this Republican Party, however, another crazy leadership shake-up is not out of the question.
